M-o-I should be one for all
I would like to clarify with respect to the earlier articles on the
English-as-medium-of-instruction issue that the 'anti-English' group is
not seeking a general block on English medium in primary schools, but
only in government-run primary schools. In the Indian reality this means
that the rich have a choice and can educate their children in English as
they can afford private education, while the poor have to study in
Konkani. This is blatant discrimination favouring the already
privileged, as everybody knows that English education gives a person a
big headstart in India as well as the world. If Konkani is to be
enforced as the medium of instruction in Goan primary schools--and there
are some convincing arguments to show that students benefit by doing
their early education in their native language--this has to be across
the board, i.e. private schools should also have to run their primary
sections in Konkani.
Amita Kanekar
On Sat, Jun 4, 2011 at 3:48 AM, Goanet Reader wrote:
HOW FOREIGN IS 'FOREIGN'?
Or, why politicians shy away from the truth over English in India (and Goa)
By Frederick Noronha
[email protected]
SOME TIME in 2003, the then Goa chief minister Manohar
Parrikar followed the footsteps of politicians like
Shashikala Kakodkar (during the short-lived PDF regime of
1990) in his stand against English-language education. He
said at a Marathi meet that "English cannot be the
mother-tongue of Goans". Since the early 1990s, politicians
of different hues have been blocking primary education in
English largely on the grounds that it is a "foreign language".
